mannaburn
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2011
- Posts
- 38
- Likes
- 10
A noob’s journey
Hello everyone, I’d like to post my own “guide” written for people starting out in the world of head-fi. A little background about myself; I am still a complete noob and I’ve only been on head-fi for several weeks. My first experience with audiophile equipment was when I visited my uncle in Indonesia years ago, who had a >$50,000 speaker system with turntables, tube amps, floor speakers and even vibration dampening tables. He also spent a significant amount of money making a soundproof room with proper insulation and those wooden things on the wall that disperse the sound. I first thought he was nuts, spending that kind of money (this is in Indonesia where an average person’s salary is around $200/month) on just speakers. But when he played me several LPs of Mozart and Bach, I was breathless and that seed of obsession was planted deep within me. Ever since, I wanted to replicate that sound somehow but realized that if all that costs above $50,000 then I’m just kidding myself. In my own way, I still tried to get the best sound I could get. I tried higher and higher end IEMs up to the Etymotic HF3 with custom eartips. It was then, when I discovered Head-fi. I started by looking for custom IEMs like the JH13 and the UM Miracle after the custom eartips worked so well for me. I realized that I could get a better sound quality if I go through the permanent headphone approach. This is where the rabbit hole started.
After significant research on head-fi, I started with the AKG K701 purchased from a fellow head-fier. Knowing that the 701s need proper amplification, I tried to use a receiver I already have at home, the Harman Kardon AVR 146 and honestly, although everyone said the 701 needs great amplification and equipment, it didn’t sound bad. I didn’t notice that the headphones would sound differently, because without any amp/dac to compare with, it sounded fine. What was extremely disappointing was that the setup didn’t sound very different from my Logitech G35 headphones. I voiced my concerns on head-fi and someone told me that either the 701s weren’t suited for me or I was using a bad source. True enough, when I re-ripped my cds to FLAC (using dbpoweramp) the 701s pulled FAR ahead from the G35. I was ecstatic to have this kind of sound from my system! I’ve heard FLAC files before on ibuds or skullcandy and beats IEMs and while it was an improvement, it was hardly worth the effort, especially due to the massive file sizes. The 701s though, really showed a lot of difference and it was amazing.
I also bought a Schiit Lyr to run my 701s but I only had a few days worth of listening experience through them. I currently use computer→Toslink→AVR146→Schiit Lyr→Headphones. YES the Lyr made my 701s sound better. Is it a lot of improvement? Nope. Will I return them? No. The reason is that when you do analytical listening, the improvements are at the places where you enjoy the most. The bass was brought up to a perfect level (imho), the clarity of the mids and highs are better. All in all, is it worth $450? To me, yes!
UPDATE: I got a fiio D3 to replace my receiver and to be honest I didn't get any noticeable improvement. If anything, I preferred the sound of my receiver but then again, it took me like 30 times switching back and forth to recognize such a minuscule difference. I ended up using the fiio D3 in my permanent setup because it was much smaller and freed up some table space.
Knowing what equipment can do, I asked head-fi for stores that demo headphones in my area and several people suggested some stores in Chicago. I ended up going to two “audio consultants” stores, one in Evanston and the other in Chicago. At the Chicago store, I tried out the Grado sr 325, RS1 and Sennheiser HD 600. The Evanston store had a bigger collection and I tried the Grado PS1000 and Sennheiser HD 650 and HD 800. The 325 and RS1 were nice; they can easily be driven by my iphone, sounds fun and have a very deep bass without being muddled like Beats Studio (my roommate has one). The PS 1000 had a more reference like quality in the mids and highs but still retain the Grado family sound: the deep bass which I found to be a little overpowering, but I can clearly see how a lot of people would love these headphones. Essentially, the PS1000 were the RS1 but does everything better while retaining the fun sound that Grado has. Moving on to the Senns. The 600s were really nice. Definitely more balanced than the Grados but I preferred my 701’s clarity in the mids and the highs to the Senns. The bass was significantly better than my 701s and I feel that the highs were slightly better than the Grados. The 650s on the other hand were my strongest contender for my 701s. I cannot really pinpoint a specific difference between the 600 and 650s but there definitely was. It was like the 650s were more restrained but in a good way. It played everything I threw at it very elegantly. To give an analogy, I felt that the house sounds of Grados 325 and RS1s are like a young and full of life person. The Senns 600 and 650s are like an English gentleman who recognizes the importance of balance and does everything well but isn’t the best at an individual aspect. The AKG 701s are like the virtuoso pianist that knows he’s damn good but blind to the rest of the world.
I wanted to keep the HD800s to its on individual paragraph. The 800s were simply put, perfection. I listened to it through a very nice looing amp (don’t know what it was) and I listened to a string quartet on them. It was like the quartet were playing right in front of me, perfectly. The 800s had clearer highs, more refined mids and I can’t really say much about the bass from listening to a string quartet, but the lows from the viola were crisp. I am a big fan of the mids and highs and I think that’s why I loved the 800s so much. I would easily pay the money the 800s were worth and more to be able to have that sound everyday. Yeah I could spend money to go to concerts, but to go to concerts where the musicians don’t suck costs a lot of money, is inconvenient and you can’t have that everyday after work, with a glass of blue label, on a recliner, with the lights dimmed…. You get where I’m going.
Now as much as I love the 800s, I have been told that the LCD 2 would be the HD 650 version of top tiers, while the 800s are the top tier version of the 701s. By that, I mean that the LCD 2 would play every type of music in a top tier level. It may not perform as well as the 800s for the clarity but people have told me that the 800s REQUIRE excellent equipment and flawless recordings. The LCD 2 should be more forgiving in that regard. With that being said, this is all SPECULATION. I have not heard the LCD 2 at all. But if anyone can tell me where I can try them out in the Illinois/Indiana area I would do it in a heartbeat and post my impressions here.
In summary, if you’re looking at mid-fi headphones, take into account your tastes in music and demo them if you can. It really clears up a lot of the questions that only YOU can definitively answer. I love my 701s but in retrospect I would have bought the HD650s because it can handle anything and everything I would throw at it well. The 701s are wonderful for classical music, instrumentals and piano music. Grados are great for punk rock, classic rock and essentially bass dependent music. I feel that if you have the money, for 2 headphones; get an AKG K701 and a Grado RS1/325. If you want a headphone that does it all, take the Sennheiser HD 650. Thank you head-fi you’ve given me an approach to the elusive sound that I heard so many years ago. I will let you know about my future headphone and audio escapades.
UPDATE: I love my 701s more and more everyday, but I split up my playlist because of it. Classical, instrumental, piano and lounge music is fantastic on the 701, but I love punk/classic rock, dubstep and techno as well. With these genres..... Frankly I'd prefer beats headphones over the 701. The 701 was so dry, playing the song clearly but it wasn't getting my heartbeat up. I wasn't excited.... So I decided to buy another headphone, one that would slap my roomate's beats headphone in the face for existing. Looking for Rock headphones and my first thought were grados. I wanted the ms2is or the 325is but I found out that they would sound terrible from my Lyr. So I pm'ed MalVeauX and asked for his suggestion for rock headphones with the Lyr in mind and he recommended the beyerdynamic DT990 600 ohm. After further research on the forums I bit the bullet and bought the cans from amazon (next day shipping). These cans are the perfect complement for my 701s. They are definitely less refined from the 701s but boy they sure put a smile on my face. And yes, these put beats headphones to shame but no surprise there. I think I like these better than the grado that I've tried previously. I'm not sure why but it seems that it's a little more refined than the grados (I think). With better sound stage and separation. I still claim the 701 as the reference headphone, but man the 990s are so much FUN!!! Anyway, these 2 headphones are staying with me for a while. One weird thing though. I plugged my 990s to my iPhone and honestly they sound really really good. I was a little upset because I couldn't really justify my amp anymore because they sound so good from my iPhone. But upon further A/B testing, I noticed that I am much more into the song through my amp. By that I mean I have to resist the urge to dance because I feel connected somehow. I noticed this doesn't happen with my iPhone. So it just goes to show it does sound better, even to my subconscious although I cannot put into words what's different. I suppose I just have to train my ears more. But damn I'm so happy with my setup now! I wake up to all American rejects, T.A.T.U, Linkin Park on my 990s and study/relax with Bliss and Keane on my 701s
So yeah I have different headphones for different genres. Slippery slope......
Thank you Dubstep Girl, MalVeauX, HeadFi Fanatic, dum656 and everyone else who has helped me through my baby stage of audiophilia. You are what make this forum the best forum that I have been a part of.
Sorry its such a long post. If any of you have any questions, suggestions or comments please feel free to post a reply.
Hello everyone, I’d like to post my own “guide” written for people starting out in the world of head-fi. A little background about myself; I am still a complete noob and I’ve only been on head-fi for several weeks. My first experience with audiophile equipment was when I visited my uncle in Indonesia years ago, who had a >$50,000 speaker system with turntables, tube amps, floor speakers and even vibration dampening tables. He also spent a significant amount of money making a soundproof room with proper insulation and those wooden things on the wall that disperse the sound. I first thought he was nuts, spending that kind of money (this is in Indonesia where an average person’s salary is around $200/month) on just speakers. But when he played me several LPs of Mozart and Bach, I was breathless and that seed of obsession was planted deep within me. Ever since, I wanted to replicate that sound somehow but realized that if all that costs above $50,000 then I’m just kidding myself. In my own way, I still tried to get the best sound I could get. I tried higher and higher end IEMs up to the Etymotic HF3 with custom eartips. It was then, when I discovered Head-fi. I started by looking for custom IEMs like the JH13 and the UM Miracle after the custom eartips worked so well for me. I realized that I could get a better sound quality if I go through the permanent headphone approach. This is where the rabbit hole started.
After significant research on head-fi, I started with the AKG K701 purchased from a fellow head-fier. Knowing that the 701s need proper amplification, I tried to use a receiver I already have at home, the Harman Kardon AVR 146 and honestly, although everyone said the 701 needs great amplification and equipment, it didn’t sound bad. I didn’t notice that the headphones would sound differently, because without any amp/dac to compare with, it sounded fine. What was extremely disappointing was that the setup didn’t sound very different from my Logitech G35 headphones. I voiced my concerns on head-fi and someone told me that either the 701s weren’t suited for me or I was using a bad source. True enough, when I re-ripped my cds to FLAC (using dbpoweramp) the 701s pulled FAR ahead from the G35. I was ecstatic to have this kind of sound from my system! I’ve heard FLAC files before on ibuds or skullcandy and beats IEMs and while it was an improvement, it was hardly worth the effort, especially due to the massive file sizes. The 701s though, really showed a lot of difference and it was amazing.
I also bought a Schiit Lyr to run my 701s but I only had a few days worth of listening experience through them. I currently use computer→Toslink→AVR146→Schiit Lyr→Headphones. YES the Lyr made my 701s sound better. Is it a lot of improvement? Nope. Will I return them? No. The reason is that when you do analytical listening, the improvements are at the places where you enjoy the most. The bass was brought up to a perfect level (imho), the clarity of the mids and highs are better. All in all, is it worth $450? To me, yes!
UPDATE: I got a fiio D3 to replace my receiver and to be honest I didn't get any noticeable improvement. If anything, I preferred the sound of my receiver but then again, it took me like 30 times switching back and forth to recognize such a minuscule difference. I ended up using the fiio D3 in my permanent setup because it was much smaller and freed up some table space.
Knowing what equipment can do, I asked head-fi for stores that demo headphones in my area and several people suggested some stores in Chicago. I ended up going to two “audio consultants” stores, one in Evanston and the other in Chicago. At the Chicago store, I tried out the Grado sr 325, RS1 and Sennheiser HD 600. The Evanston store had a bigger collection and I tried the Grado PS1000 and Sennheiser HD 650 and HD 800. The 325 and RS1 were nice; they can easily be driven by my iphone, sounds fun and have a very deep bass without being muddled like Beats Studio (my roommate has one). The PS 1000 had a more reference like quality in the mids and highs but still retain the Grado family sound: the deep bass which I found to be a little overpowering, but I can clearly see how a lot of people would love these headphones. Essentially, the PS1000 were the RS1 but does everything better while retaining the fun sound that Grado has. Moving on to the Senns. The 600s were really nice. Definitely more balanced than the Grados but I preferred my 701’s clarity in the mids and the highs to the Senns. The bass was significantly better than my 701s and I feel that the highs were slightly better than the Grados. The 650s on the other hand were my strongest contender for my 701s. I cannot really pinpoint a specific difference between the 600 and 650s but there definitely was. It was like the 650s were more restrained but in a good way. It played everything I threw at it very elegantly. To give an analogy, I felt that the house sounds of Grados 325 and RS1s are like a young and full of life person. The Senns 600 and 650s are like an English gentleman who recognizes the importance of balance and does everything well but isn’t the best at an individual aspect. The AKG 701s are like the virtuoso pianist that knows he’s damn good but blind to the rest of the world.
I wanted to keep the HD800s to its on individual paragraph. The 800s were simply put, perfection. I listened to it through a very nice looing amp (don’t know what it was) and I listened to a string quartet on them. It was like the quartet were playing right in front of me, perfectly. The 800s had clearer highs, more refined mids and I can’t really say much about the bass from listening to a string quartet, but the lows from the viola were crisp. I am a big fan of the mids and highs and I think that’s why I loved the 800s so much. I would easily pay the money the 800s were worth and more to be able to have that sound everyday. Yeah I could spend money to go to concerts, but to go to concerts where the musicians don’t suck costs a lot of money, is inconvenient and you can’t have that everyday after work, with a glass of blue label, on a recliner, with the lights dimmed…. You get where I’m going.
Now as much as I love the 800s, I have been told that the LCD 2 would be the HD 650 version of top tiers, while the 800s are the top tier version of the 701s. By that, I mean that the LCD 2 would play every type of music in a top tier level. It may not perform as well as the 800s for the clarity but people have told me that the 800s REQUIRE excellent equipment and flawless recordings. The LCD 2 should be more forgiving in that regard. With that being said, this is all SPECULATION. I have not heard the LCD 2 at all. But if anyone can tell me where I can try them out in the Illinois/Indiana area I would do it in a heartbeat and post my impressions here.
In summary, if you’re looking at mid-fi headphones, take into account your tastes in music and demo them if you can. It really clears up a lot of the questions that only YOU can definitively answer. I love my 701s but in retrospect I would have bought the HD650s because it can handle anything and everything I would throw at it well. The 701s are wonderful for classical music, instrumentals and piano music. Grados are great for punk rock, classic rock and essentially bass dependent music. I feel that if you have the money, for 2 headphones; get an AKG K701 and a Grado RS1/325. If you want a headphone that does it all, take the Sennheiser HD 650. Thank you head-fi you’ve given me an approach to the elusive sound that I heard so many years ago. I will let you know about my future headphone and audio escapades.
UPDATE: I love my 701s more and more everyday, but I split up my playlist because of it. Classical, instrumental, piano and lounge music is fantastic on the 701, but I love punk/classic rock, dubstep and techno as well. With these genres..... Frankly I'd prefer beats headphones over the 701. The 701 was so dry, playing the song clearly but it wasn't getting my heartbeat up. I wasn't excited.... So I decided to buy another headphone, one that would slap my roomate's beats headphone in the face for existing. Looking for Rock headphones and my first thought were grados. I wanted the ms2is or the 325is but I found out that they would sound terrible from my Lyr. So I pm'ed MalVeauX and asked for his suggestion for rock headphones with the Lyr in mind and he recommended the beyerdynamic DT990 600 ohm. After further research on the forums I bit the bullet and bought the cans from amazon (next day shipping). These cans are the perfect complement for my 701s. They are definitely less refined from the 701s but boy they sure put a smile on my face. And yes, these put beats headphones to shame but no surprise there. I think I like these better than the grado that I've tried previously. I'm not sure why but it seems that it's a little more refined than the grados (I think). With better sound stage and separation. I still claim the 701 as the reference headphone, but man the 990s are so much FUN!!! Anyway, these 2 headphones are staying with me for a while. One weird thing though. I plugged my 990s to my iPhone and honestly they sound really really good. I was a little upset because I couldn't really justify my amp anymore because they sound so good from my iPhone. But upon further A/B testing, I noticed that I am much more into the song through my amp. By that I mean I have to resist the urge to dance because I feel connected somehow. I noticed this doesn't happen with my iPhone. So it just goes to show it does sound better, even to my subconscious although I cannot put into words what's different. I suppose I just have to train my ears more. But damn I'm so happy with my setup now! I wake up to all American rejects, T.A.T.U, Linkin Park on my 990s and study/relax with Bliss and Keane on my 701s
So yeah I have different headphones for different genres. Slippery slope......
Thank you Dubstep Girl, MalVeauX, HeadFi Fanatic, dum656 and everyone else who has helped me through my baby stage of audiophilia. You are what make this forum the best forum that I have been a part of.
Sorry its such a long post. If any of you have any questions, suggestions or comments please feel free to post a reply.
you will learn more and more as you continue to post on head fi
